


Law vs Morals

by Purple_ducky00



Series: AU-gust prompts [20]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - 19th Century, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Happy Ending, M/M, Major character death - Freeform, Mob Boss Tony Stark, Multi, Police Chief James Rhodes, Rivals, characters die of old age
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:53:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26002222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Purple_ducky00/pseuds/Purple_ducky00
Summary: Police Chief James Rhodes is adamant on taking down the Stark mob. When he gets kidnapped by the Starks, he starts to see all they do. Can there be some gray in the world of black and white?
Relationships: James "Rhodey" Rhodes/Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Pepper Potts/James "Rhodey" Rhodes/Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Series: AU-gust prompts [20]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1859422
Comments: 7
Kudos: 43





	Law vs Morals

The Stark family has ruled New York City for the better part of the 1800s, growing stronger as each successor took their place as the head. Howard followed Montgomery, strengthening their hold by marrying Maria Carbonell and taking over the Carbonell family business as well. Anthony, or Tony, now sits on the seat. Rumors of his cunning and ruthlessness precede him. No one steps onto his territory without him knowing. Anyone who tries to go against his rule is taken care of immediately.

The problem with this is, no one can pin anything on Stark. Any mobster caught is more afraid of their boss than the police and will not say a word. Police Chief Rhodes devotes his life to taking down the Stark family. The only problem is that most of his cops have been bought by the mobster. It’s up to him alone to find evidence on the man.

Stark himself is a bit of a recluse. He doesn’t go out much, and when he does, he goes big. All eyes are on him, and everyone knows where he is and what he’s doing. It’s very hard to accuse him of any wrongdoing when the public loves him. Rhodes has met him several times. Stark greets him happily, even giving him the nickname of ‘Rhodey’. Rhodes can admit that if he did not know that Stark was a criminal, they’d probably be good friends.

Rhodes once got a tip-off telling him to keep an eye out for Stark’s wife. A high-society woman, Mrs. Stark is seen at all the social events wearing the latest gowns in fashion. Graceful and beautiful, she is always the star of the show. Rhodes often wonders if she knows her husband deals in criminal affairs. Rhodes tails her for a few days, but nothing she does seems out of the ordinary. He finally gives up and goes back to his normal routine.

Another tip-off leads him to bring down Tiberius Stone, Stark’s competitor. Stone himself cannot tie Stark to anything either, but he feeds Rhodes with a lot of rumors and information. “Potts, well Mrs. Stark now, is not as genteel as she seems. She is deadly, officer, deadly. She runs more of the operation than Stark himself. They say that he told everyone who works for him that whatever she says goes. She’s the real kingpin here.” He also rattles off places that he assumes Stark uses as fronts for his real business.

Chief Rhodes goes by foot as there are no available carriages and he’d prefer to be inconspicuous. Taking it upon himself to search the buildings, Rhodes stumbles across a dead body, brutally beaten and mangled. He’s ready to call it in when something hits the back of his head, and he falls, unconscious.

He wakes up in a nicely furnished room, handcuffed to the headboard of a bed. Struggling to get free, he doesn’t notice the person sitting next to him until they clear their throat. Rhodes yells. “Let me go, you bastard!” Until he realizes that the person sitting next to him is a woman, that woman being Mrs. Stark. “Pardon my language, ma’am.”

The woman frowns down at him. “Don’t patronize me,” She says. “I wanted to kill you immediately. You had better be thankful that my husband likes you. Now that you’re awake, I’ll get him.” She pushes down a button and calls. “Send Mr. Stark to the hold, please.”

A few minutes later, Stark rushes in the door. “Rhodey!” He smiles, face beaming. “It’s so nice to see you again!”

Mrs. Stark rolls her eyes, muttering, and Rhodes pulls against his cuffs. “What do you want from me? Why am I here?”

“I don’t really want you to be here, but it was either keep you here or kill you, and I don’t want to see you killed.” Stark’s eyes get sad.

“Don’t go playing the victim here, Stark.” He growls. “Everyone knows you’re a criminal. I am going to get out of here and take you down.”

“Tony, I told you he’s not going to cooperate,” Mrs. Stark sighs.

Tony holds out his hand to her. “Pepper, I don’t want to kill him, please.”

This comes off weird to Rhodes. Tony Stark, the invincible head of the Stark gang, is pleading to his wife to spare the life of the only cop who’s been trying to bring him down for the past decade? What is going on here? He watches as the couple share a conversation with their eyes. Mrs. Stark sighs again and shrugs. Tony turns back to Rhodes. “I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to stay here. Collateral damage and all – I’m sure you understand. Please know that you may ask for whatever you want, and it shall be given to you. You’ll be treated like a special guest. But you'll have a guard with you at all times so that you can’t escape.”

“Why don’t you just kill me?” Rhodes sinks back on the bed.

Tony sits beside him. “Because, Rhodey, I like you. And I never want to see you dead.”

“What are you going to do if my men start looking for me?”

“Rhodey, be serious. First off, I have all your men on my payroll. Secondly, did you tell anyone where you were going?” Stark tilts his head. Rhodes has to admit that he has a point.

The Starks assign two guards to Rhodes, a thin teenager who is exceptionally strong and a stony faced man with a prosthetic arm. The teenager likes to talk. He tells Rhodes how Mr. Stark saved him and his aunt from being thrown out on the street because they couldn’t pay rent. He goes on about his friends, his boyfriends, and the food he had for breakfast until the other guard, Barnes, asks him to shut it.

“What about you?” Rhodes asks snidely. “Did _Mr. Stark_ save your life as well?”

“No, but he saved my wife's. I was already working for him when she was caught by the police. She smuggled her way over here from Russia, and they didn’t like that very much. Mr. Stark paid them off before they did anything vile to her. I am forever grateful for that.”

_What is this, the time for sob stories?_ Rhodes scoffs. It wouldn’t surprise him that Stark would pay them to tell him these things. For some reason, Stark always wanted to be on his good side. Maybe he wants to win Rhodes over, too. It won’t happen.

The Starks find out not too long after that Pepper is pregnant. Tony removes her from any field work until she comes to term. He doesn’t want her, or his unborn child injured in any way. The redhead works behind the scenes a lot more now. As Stark is very busy, she spends a lot of time sitting with Rhodes. They play chess and checkers while Pepper puts her feet up. She usually wins, but there are a few times Rhodes is able to eek in a victory.

As he resides at the Stark mansion, he starts to notice things. Tony spends most of his time in his workshop, either developing new weapons for his men, or more often than not, manufacturing things to help people in their daily lives. He overhears one of Stark’s men asking what to do with the Keener family. “She’s late on her payments once again, sir.”

“It’s not her fault they won’t hire a single mother. Let her live there for free. It’s not costing me anything. Besides, Harley comes here a lot of times after school. I appreciate his help. Leave them alone and work over the rich assholes who won’t pay their workers,” Tony replies.

Pepper funds many orphanages and homes for the poor. Between the two of them, the Starks are building a respectable neighborhood around them, something they wouldn’t have been able to do without their drug and crime money.

One day, when Tony comes in from a stroll, Rhodes mentions this to him. Tony smiles. “Now you’re getting it. Tell me, Rhodey, which is better? Me, robbing the extremely wealthy of the funds they’ll never use to help build up the city or having men in power who only strive for their own greatness? Who hire police officers who will imprison the misfortunate because they have no home and take advantage of the unarmed women? I hope you realize that just because something is legal, it’s not always _moral_. And vice versus.”  
  


“Is that how you sleep at night?” Rhodes scoffs.

Tony sighs. “No, how I sleep at night is with my darling wife in a very comfortable bed. You’d be welcome to join if you’d like.”

Rhodes is taken aback. Stark just said that so… casually. Doesn’t he know he could get killed for that kind of comment? Homosexuality is a taboo, and those who have those feelings didn’t dare speak in public about it. Rhodes knows; he is one of those persons. In any other case, he would have brushed it off as a joke, but… he can’t stop thinking about it. He’s not sure if it’s Stockholm Syndrome or not, but his feelings towards Mr. and Mrs. Stark have definitely changed.

Thinking of them as friends and not enemies, he often seeks out their company now. Pepper and he have long conversations about art, strategies, and even fashion. He accompanies Tony to his workshop every now and again. He learns about simple mechanics and the newest technologies. They have settled into a very easy camaraderie.

Now, Tony makes that comment. Rhodes can’t deny that he finds both husband and wife very attractive. He decides, after a long night of debate, to leave the comment as it was said and not think of it again until…

One night, he knocks on Pepper’s parlor door for their usually book reading. Like most times, she doesn’t answer. He slips in the door only to find her and Tony getting it on. They don’t pull away when they see him, and he backs up, stammering. “I-I’m sorry. I’ll just come back later.”  
  


“Join us?” Pepper asks, head thrown back in pleasure.

_They must have been serious._ Rhodes thinks. “Are you sure?”

“Would we have asked were we not sure?” Tony queries. “We want you here, Rhodey, but we understand if you would prefer to leave.”

“No, I will stay.”

++++++++  
When little Morgan is born seven months later, Pepper introduces her to both of her fathers. Rhodey becomes part of the business. When Pepper stays in the background tending to Morgan, he takes control of the next moves. He and Pepper band together when Tony takes care of the baby, which is more often than not. She has him wrapped around her finger.

Rhodey loves Morgan. She’s not his child by blood, but she’s his child. No one dares to tell him or her otherwise. He teaches her how to defend herself at a very young age. It is not a secret that she will be even more powerful than her predecessors.

The trio stick together as laws change, as Morgan grows, as they grow old. Pepper is the first to pass, falling sick with the flu. Rhodey is next at the age of eighty-five. Tony passes not long after, handing the reins of the business to his daughter. Although she grows more powerful than her parents, tales are still told about the trio that ran New York.

**Author's Note:**

> @ the person who requested this prompt, you know who you are ;) I hope you like it!


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